Ann and the Doctor
by retrosockmonkey
Summary: god uh this is just a wild oc who meets the doctor yeah uh god


1

My head was in my hands, tears running down my face, and I was breathing hard. I heard the strangest sound, something behind me that sounded a bit like roaring. There was a sound like a creaking door. I looked over my shoulder, into the alleyway that should've been empty like it had been for the past two nights I'd slept here. But it wasn't. A blue, wooden box, standing there like it'd been standing there for years and _I _was invading its space. A man stuck his head out the squeaky door.

"Who're you?" I demanded. The brown-haired man looked at me, my tear-stained face, and looked all around.

"I'm the Doctor! And who are you? And why are you crying?" He looked very concerned as he shut the door behind him and strode over to my position on a trashcan.

"I'm not crying! And why should I tell you who I am? You could be anyone, and I know that _anyone_ can be dangerous! And _I'm not crying_!" I snapped, wiping my eyes.

"I told you who I was, so now you tell me! And if you _were_ crying, what might you be crying about?" He seemed very calm, and _very _cautious.

"Right then, I'm Ann. Ann Lehrer. And who are you? Doctor who, exactly?" I demanded. I realized that I was being very rude to this man who was being very kind to me, so, I added, "Please." I was the master of kindness.

"Just the Doctor." He replied sweetly, smiling at me. It struck me how handsome most girls would find him and his smile.

"And what's that thing?" I asked, looking behind him.

He also looked back at the blue box, then turned back towards me. "That's my TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. I use it to travel through time and space, all though I was using it to get to Hesniah Galaxien, you see; they've got the most amazing frozen custard…." He saw my puzzled expression and continued. "Anyway, the TARDIS took me here, to this alleyway, so unless something really bad is about to happen, the TARDIS led me to you; and you were crying, so something about you is important, something about you is so enormously important that it led me, the last Time Lord, to you, a young lady crying in an alley. So, why were you crying?" The Doctor said the last four words very pointedly, and I decided I should tell him.

I opened my mouth to explain, when I felt the ground shake and heard screams. The Doctor looked to the street opening behind me, his mouth slightly open. He turned to me, grabbed my hand, and said, "Come on, Ann!" and we ran into the street. When we reached the street, I screamed as I saw the most ugly thing under the moon. It had a long, pale, stretched face. The eyes were big black holes. The beast was wearing a black suit and I couldn't help but be absolutely terrified. Behind this horrifying monster was an awful sight. There was an explosion that looked like it began from a car being lit on fire. But the worst part—the part that would haunt my nightmares for months—was the look on its face. It didn't seem to notice the fiery explosion.

"You." was all the Doctor said.

This ugly beast just made a sort of growling noise.

"How did you find me? What do you want?" he said it so firmly, I had to look away from the thing. I saw the Doctor marking himself with a pen.

"Doctor, why're you doing that?"

He turned to me. "Doing what?" he asked puzzled, and I gestured to his arm where he marked himself. He looked at it and swore. He looked back at the beast, and marked himself again. Looking at the creature, he asked me, "How long has it been here?"

"What, the monster?—"

"—Alien—" he interrupted.

"—Whatever. You and I have been standing here for less than two minutes." I concluded. "Wait, _alien?_" I screeched, looking at his face. "This thing's an alien, as in, other planet, life other than Earth? How would you know? Are you with NASA or something?"

He continued to look at the scary alien, as he replied. "I'm an alien, I know other aliens. Anyway, look behind you, and don't turn back around till I give the signal." I turned around.

"There's nothing here…" I muttered.

"No, there isn't. Do you remember what I'm staring at?"

"Yes, you said there was some alien there." I rolled my eyes at his stupidity.

"Describe it to me."

"Er—right, its all pale, wearing a black suit, claws for hands, pale stretched out face…" I trailed off.

I turned back to the Doctor, and he was staring at me with a face of utter disbelief. He saw himself holding a pen, and I could see him connecting some very mysterious dots in his head.

"A Silence is right behind me, isn't it, Ann?"

"Is that what they're called? Yeah, he's behind you, as you should know, we've been talking like this for almost five minutes!"

"Ann, can you remember the Silence _after_ you look away?" The Doctor looked shocked.

"'Course I can. Just like anything else. I mean, you see it, you look away, but it's still there, like a statue." Why was this so difficult to understand?

He turned and faced the Silence and asked it the same question, again, "What do you want?"

The Silence lifted its' three fingered hand and gestured at me. I gasped. "Doctor, what does it mean?"

"Shh! What do you want with her? She's just a little insignificant human!… well, no she isn't insignificant…yes the TARDIS led me to her…just because she can remember?" the Doctor said all this like he was carrying on a conversation with the Silence.

"Okay, Doctor, I'll just be off. Clearly, this… _thing _is what you came to see, and it wants to kill me or something, so there's no reason for me to linger. Bye," I said this very quietly, taking small steps backwards. It was unmistakable that this 'Doctor' was either very, very important, or very, very mad.

"No, Ann. I know what you're thinking, but you are very important right now, so you will go back to that alley, and use this key," (he threw me a little silver key) "to get in the TARDIS, and you will wait for me as I have a little conversation with the Silence." He said this all, while not taking his eyes off the monster, who now sounded like he was either purring or growling.

"Er- all right," I mumbled, than ran back into my alley and up to the blue box. The TARDIS. What did that stand for again? I shoved the key in the lock and started to open the door when I realized the insanity of the situation. Here I was, about to wait in a wooden box because some madman told me to. I became conscious of the idea that the Silence had killed five innocent people to get the Doctor here. That made it sound like the Doctor followed death… or maybe death followed the Doctor. I quietly shut the door, put the key in my coat's pocket. I looked around to see if the Doctor was watching me, then I ran down the alley, away from the big blue box, away from the Doctor, away from those poor incinerated bodies. I ran to the end of the alleyway, which led to another street in the busy city of London. There were many other bums sitting around fires, and in sleeping bags. I ran to the right, and some of the bums whistled and catcalled. If I were still a respectable eighteen-year-old woman, this might bother me, but not anymore.

I ran down the street, and kept running until I was in a more ghetto part of London. I saw a hostel and walked inside very calmly.

"How much for one night?" I asked politely, as though I wasn't on the run from a madman.

The woman behind the counter looked at me. She was beautiful. She had brown eyes with blonde hair, and a small face. Her small pink lips turned up at the corners as she smiled at me and said, "Six pounds."

I reached into the inside pocket of my leather jacket where I kept the money from my collecting tin. I had collected only ten euros after begging for one week. I handed them to her, and she led me to my room.

In the room, there were six people. Three were sleeping, two were playing cards, and one was reading. I turned to face the woman. "Thank you," I murmured, smiling. She smiled back and my heart jumped. I walked to the only available cot, tucked myself in, and almost immediately fell asleep.

I suddenly awoke to see the dusty hostel I had previously fallen asleep in. Dawn was creeping, and all the cots had sleeping lumps, some snoring. I got out of my cot and went to the bathroom. As I looked in the cracked mirror, I washed my face for the first time in a week. Someone's toothpaste and toothbrush were sitting out, and I took advantage of the situation. I brushed my boyish hair and remembered the Doctor. I doubted he would look for me now. I wasn't that important. I had to choose a different street and alley to live on, though, just in case he was still there.

I walked through the room and went down to the front desk. I saw a man who looked like he was interrogating the nice woman who had shown me to my room the night before. I walked briskly to the desk so I could tell her I was leaving and thank you for the room.

"Have you had an 'Ann' check in?" the man asked her and I recognized his voice. I stopped dead in my tracks. How could the Doctor have traced me to this hostel that was at least three blocks away from the original alley?

"Well, we had a woman check in late last night—this woman here!" the lady chimed, pointing at me.

The Doctor turned to face me. "Ann! Brilliant! I had thought finding you was going to be much more difficult!" he grinned.

"Why can't you just leave me alone? I don't want to have to deal with you, you madman!" I barked at him. I turned to the woman and smiled. "Thank you for your hospitality, I will be leaving now," I said and turned on my heel to face the door and walk out. I heard footsteps behind me. Of course, this Doctor bloke was following me!

As soon as we were at the end of the street, I turned and barked at him. "Stop following me, ye madman! I should call the cops! That creature you talked with—he killed five innocent people just to get yer attention!" The angrier I got, the more prominent my Scottish accent became. "What kind of man does that make you? I don't want to know a murderer! That's what you are, isn't it? You lure young girls with no future—like myself—into yer mad box and—and—take care of 'em, don't ya?!—"

"No, Ann, I don't kill young girls. That is not why I want you to come with me. I want you to come with me because you can remember!" he barked the last bit at me, and I flinched a bit. He turned and strode towards the blue box, which was just at the corner of the street. Feeling defeated, I followed him. When I got to the box, he held out his hand. Understanding, I pulled the silver key out of my pocket and put it in his hand.

"Thank you," he said, much more kindly. He put the key in the lock, opened the door, and walked inside.

I followed him, very bored, until I looked around me. The inside was bigger. I ran back outside and looked around the box, before going back inside.

"It's bigger inside… How is this even possible?" I was so confused.

"Technology of the Time Lords. I won't get into the science of it; it's a bit befuddling. What do you think?"

"What's a Time Lord?" I said, still dazed and looking about.

"My race of people. I'm the only one left." I looked at him, and he was looking right at me, frowning, just a bit.

"Oh! I—uh-I'm so sorry. What happened?" The last of your species, alien or not, had to be lonely.

"Ahh, just a war. I won't drag on about it. Bit depressing. Any who, about you. You can remember the Silence. And the Silence knows. How?"

"Er—I don't know. Why, can't you remember the Silence?" I felt my head pounding.

"No. Nobody can. Except you. Why? Why is it that some random little human being is the only one in the universe that can remember The Silence? Even the Silence don't know why…their best answer is to kill you, but that wouldn't help much…"

He continued talking as I remembered a day when I was a little girl. We are in Utah, my uncle and aunt and me. I love Utah. It's so warm here, I thought. I realize that for these first seven years of my life, I've never even met my aunt and uncle before. I'm wondering if that's normal for most kids, when I hear my aunt's voice.

"Ann! Would you like a picnic and swimming at a lake?" my lovely young aunt calls.

"That would be lovely! What is the lake called?" I chime from the guest bedroom.

"Lake Silencio. _Silencio _is Spanish for silence. Come into the kitchen and we can make food for the picnic," my dear aunt says, walking into my room.

We arrived at the lake about an hour later. My uncle believes that the best spot of the lake is all the way around, so we spend about an hour hiking through the sand to get to the best part of the lake.

I'm splashing about, in the little waves, while my aunt and uncle eat their turkey sandwiches, when a little ways down the lake, I see a tall figure of a man.

"Auntie, who's that man?" I ask, curious if he is going to hurt us or talk to us or just stand there.

There is no reply, so I turn and look at my aunt and uncle. Except they're not there.

I gasped as I came back to present day.

"I've seen the Silence before!" I gasped, cutting off the Doctor.

"What?" He gaped at me.

"When I was nine years old, I had this dream where I was visiting my non-existent aunt and uncle in Utah and we went to this lake, Lake Silencio, for a picnic and swimming, and the Silence was there, and I called to my aunt, but when I turned around, she wasn't there! I remember telling my mum about it and she thought there must've been something wrong with me…It certainly wasn't the last time she's thought that, though…"

"You dreamt of the Silence? Impossible! No one can even remember them long enough to put into their memory!" The Doctor's thorough confusion was almost amusing. Almost.

I was so bewildered. "Doctor, I don't really understand…"

"Ann, I really don't know either. You are the most confounding, contradicting person in the universe, and I just don't know how to handle you. I don't know whether to take you on amazing adventures, or to lock you up in the Pandorica! You are the only person who can remember. And that makes you special."

"Doctor, I hate to burst your bubble, but I'm nothing special. I'm an eighteen year old who lives like any other bum in London. Cold, hungry, poor, …lonely. Would someone special really be living on the streets? Would their mum have kicked them out because of…?" I stop abruptly.

The Doctor, who's been sitting down, looking at his hands, looks at me.

"Your mum kicked you out because of what, Ann?"


End file.
